Rating: 
Summary: Good ideas, but occasionally the prose falls flat
Review: Good storytelling involves a complex interplay between style and subject matter. As a writer, Richard Matheson often plays down stylistic considerations, telling his stories in a very straightforward tone that sometimes verges on the monotonous. His prose tends to short sentences and straight descriptions, bereft of additional detail and layers of meaning that can provoke the reader's imagination or hint at deep emotional undercurrents. Therefore, his imagery can be less striking and his atmospheres less pervasive than those crafted by writers who employ slightly more elaborate (though not necessarily "flowery") prose styles. Still, his stories are usually strong enough to succeed in spite of his occasionally unexciting writing--see the chilling and influential tale entitled "Mad House" for one stunning example, whose presence can be felt in the works of later master horror writers such as Ramsey Campbell and Stephen King.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic collection
Review: His name might not be as big as Stephen King's or Dean Koontz's, but Richard Matheson is nonetheless a master of horror fiction. Even if the name is not familiar, his works are: the title story has been shown in both Twilight Zone the TV show and movie and even been spoofed on the Simpsons. Another story in the collection, Prey, has also become a TV horror classic as part of the 70's movie, Trilogy of Terror. Matheson is also the author of the Incredible Shrinking Man, What Dreams May Come, Somewhere in Time, Stir of Echoes and I Am Legend.In this set of short stories, Matheson shows he is worth all the praise he is given. The weakest of these stories are merely good and the best are not only great, but classics. Besides his talent to create fantastic horror scenarios and true suspense, he also can leave you thinking at the end of the story. In many of these tales, you are never quite certain if there is something supernatural going on or if it is all imagined by the main character. This intentional ambiguity, done incorrectly can frustrate the reader but in Matheson's hands, it adds an extra level of depth. If you enjoy horror fiction, this collection is a must. It gives you an opportunity to read one of the most important and underrated persons in the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Wicked and Entertaining Tales
Review: In the introduction to this collection of classic Richard Matheson short stories, no less of a figure than Stephen King delivers oodles of praise to this author. According to King, Matheson emerged in a time (the 1950s and early 1960s) when the horror genre desperately needed a kick in the pants. King attributes his very existence as a horror writer to Matheson's influence. With that type of praise, the stories here need to live up to a tremendous standard, which they do easily. It should go without saying that Richard Matheson is the grandfather of modern horror; his stories created indelible impressions on millions of people when Hollywood translated "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Prey" into memorable television moments. But nothing beats going to the source to see how the original stacks up to the adaptation. You will not be disappointed with this collection, I assure you. This compilation starts off with the slam-bang "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," a story made into an episode of "The Twilight Zone" with William Shatner staring as the nervous wreck of a lead character. An unbalanced traveler on a flight through a rainstorm sees something terrible on the wing of the plane, something no one else sees and which paints him as a potential troublemaker to the flight crew. This man immediately associates the thing he sees with a gremlin, or creatures that WWII pilots claimed they saw in the skies over Europe while on their bombing runs. Whatever this thing is, time is running out because this humanoid is tearing up exterior parts of the plane. Fortunately (or unfortunately, as the case may be), our neurotic hero has a gun on the plane. When he takes action everyone thinks he is nuts, but is he? And will people think him crazy when they eventually see the outside of the plane? Then there is "Prey," a story instantly familiar to anyone who ever saw Karen Black's performance in "The Trilogy of Terror." In this tale, a young woman named Amelia is planning to go out on a big date. She even bought a present for her beau, a Zuni fetish doll. Then Amelia's overbearing mother steps in and insinuates that Amelia needs to cancel the date in order to spend time with her instead. This is regrettable for Amelia because she is now cut off from the help she will soon need to survive. The doll is no gag gift; it holds the spirit of a real African warrior, and when the charm holding back the spirit in the doll falls off it comes alive and attacks Amelia. The twist ending is nice and scary. Other stories are not as good in terms of real chills and thrills, but still show Matheson's attempts to challenge conventional narrative techniques in order to create a foreboding sense of doom. "The Dress of White Silk" tells the story of a weird, deceased mother through the crude, rambling baby talk of her young daughter. "Through Channels" takes the form of a police interrogation, with the "swish" of the tape recorder reminding us of the atmosphere the characters are in. These stories work, not because they are overwhelmingly scary, but because they reveal how to rework stories that are usually tired and formulaic (such as the vampire genre) into something that has real potential. My favorite story in this book was "Disappearing Act." In this frightening description of a man not only losing his identity but also his very being, Matheson traces the increasingly eerie events that occur when a poor bloke realizes the people and places he has known for years either vanish completely or fail to recognize him as a corporeal reality. The chills come in the languid way Matheson unfolds the story, quietly escalating each new shocking realization towards a dreadfully wicked climax. The author never explains why or how this is happening, which makes it even more jarring. For what can be worse than losing your very existence while you are aware that it is occurring? The story makes you wonder how you would react in the same situation. Nearly every type of horror story is present in this collection. Vampire tales, ghost stories, haunted towns, plagues, and yarns about psychotics all appear throughout the book. Stephen King almost certainly borrowed the plot of "Needful Things" from the Matheson story "The Distributor," a tale about a new neighbor who creates all sorts of problems for those living around him. In short, nearly every story here shows Matheson's huge influence on succeeding generations of horror hacks. The stories included in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" makes me want to go out and pick up other classic Matheson collections, both his short stories and his novels. This author strikes quite a figure in the world of the horror fan, but he ought to be better known in the general population because his stories have a timeless quality to them that promise to entertain again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent collection
Review: Included in this collection are twenty of Richard Matheson's best tales of horror. These stories were written some forty-fifty years ago and the fact that they still manage to chill and thrill proves its lastability and Matheson's talent as a writer. Many will probably remember the "Nightmare..." tale from the Twilight Zone episode and movie but any of the others would have fitted nicely in that series as well. Not all of the tales have a supernatural tinge to them. Some are purposely left ambiguous (yet still sinister), while others suggest that man's greatest enemy is man himself. All of them, though, can make your skin crawl, your spine chill and your heart beat just a little bit faster. And leave you wanting more...much more.
Rating: 
Summary: More Creepy than Scary
Review: Richard Matheson is a skilled writer who knows how to ratchet up the tension without going "over the top" or devolving into needless gory detail. The stories in this collection, for the most part, are more psychological thriller than "horror stories" in the usual sense. Most of them were written in the 1950s, and they evoke the feeling of the horror comics of that era, which drew such ire from conservative educators.
Matheson has a knack for creating truly creepy characters, and letting you see the dark recesses of the human mind. His message, often, is that anyone - the man next door, the shy girl in your English class, or even your wife - may be a monster.
As with any collection, the stories are uneven in quality. "Mad House" is THE best depiction of someone going insane that I've ever read, and several other stories create vivid images that will make you want to keep the light on if you read them shortly before retiring to bed. Others, unfortunately - "Holiday Man" for example - seem contrived and almost pointless. And Matheson is a bit too fond of closing with a flat, matter-of-fact sentence that is supposed to make the preceding horror all the more terrifying, but usually doesn't.
So, overall, I'll have to give this collection a high 4, more like a 4.5 ... but not quite a full five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Two thumbs up freak fest
Review: The stories in the first half of this collection have a common terror thread: no one will believe what the protagonist is saying. The stories in the second half have a slightly different spin: the protagonist can't believe his/her own eyes! Often it is not clear whether the evil aggressor is legitimately supernatural, a malevolent human, or a product of a paranoid hallucination. It is a tantalizing ambiguity. We know that dolls don't come to life, no one can use mind control to turn someone into a rapist or strip them of their five senses, corpses don't go bump in the night, and nothing can stand on the wing of a moving airplane. Nevertheless Matheson has the talent not only to make you accept these events, but to forget you're reading a story. He effortlessly slides between characters' mature reflections and their grisly demises. I found myself staying awake hours past my bedtime, three nights in a row, to read "just one more" story. And checking over my shoulder at the window behind me.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading!
Review: This anthology belongs on the bookself of any self-proclaimed fan of horror fiction. Using a spartan writing style free of the usual tepid writing conventions that mar most of the genre, Matheson's stories are quite effective and get under the skin. Matheson's stories are original and unique - and frightening. Skip the works of Stephen King and Dean Koontz, these stories are the work of a master storyteller and writer. An essential collection that belongs on the bookself of every horror fan.
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